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Wall Street's fabled career ladder has lost a rung to automation: A free Apple Store app turns your idevice into a stock-picking, dart-throwing monkey. This advance comes as no surprise. After all, flesh-and-blood chimps require a lot of bananas. And recent returns suggest that asset managers already have too many of the fuzzy primates on their staffs anyway.

Fortunately, no app developer yet has written an algorithm to ape our Greased Palm Index, which reflects political donations by Corporate America and has maintained a small lead over the S&P 500 this year, rising 8.1%, through Monday, to the benchmark's 7.5%.

The GPI probably is the simplest, most whimsical, not-entirely-crazy way you will find to bet on an election through stocks. Since its inception in 2003, the Greased Palm Index has beaten the S&P during the months leading up to the balloting. Year-over-year performance is another matter: In May 2010, for instance, I noted that the GPI's performance had trailed the S&P 500 by a percentage point, year-over-year.

Our index's components are the stocks of the public companies on the Center for Responsive Politics' list of the top 100 donors to political campaigns. The donations tallied by the center are based on federal-campaign reports and include contributions from corporate treasuries, their PACs, and individual employees.

SO, FOR EXAMPLE,Las Vegas SandsLVS 0.05356186395286556%Las Vegas Sands Corp.U.S.: NYSEUSD56.04
0.030.05356186395286556%
/Date(1438376620526-0500)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
3504119AFTER HOURSUSD56.01
-0.03-0.05353319057815846%
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
62784
P/E Ratio
18.93243243243243Market Cap
44755561405.0012
Dividend Yield
4.6395431834403995% Rev. per Employee
265612More quote details and news »LVSinYour ValueYour ChangeShort position
(ticker: LVS) Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson's largess, first as a supporter of Newt Gingrich and now of Mitt Romney, propelled the casino company to the top of the list in terms of money given. In stock performance, however, Las Vegas Sands is the only company among the top 10 in donations whose stock declined year-to-date—by 2.7%. Of the Center for Responsive Politics' total universe of 32 publicly traded companies, nine declined.

Big Spenders

The 10 publicly traded companies whose employees have made the biggest political contributions this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Unlike the S&P 500, membership in the GPI is as flexible as Tarzan's pet chimp Cheetah. In 2004, it contained 45 listings. The list shrank this year because employees at fewer companies made meaningful donations, presumably because the sick economy has reduced disposable income.

There's a baldly cynical notion behind the GPI: Corporate donations purchase political goodwill, an asset that you won't find listed in any 10-K. And in an age where extreme government meddling in our markets is the norm, every bit of political goodwill helps.